[sf-lug] SF-LUG meeting notes for Sunday 2 Sepember 2018

Ken Shaffer kenshaffer80 at gmail.com
Tue Sep 18 17:07:51 PDT 2018


My original idea to show the Intel Compute Stick (ICS) at the Linux User
Group meeting was to find a small HDMI display, and use a USB mouse and
keyboard. The ICS runs Ubuntu 14.04 with a 4.4 series kernel.

Evenutally, I figured out that I should be able to use a tablet or phone
for the display over wireless, instead of the HDMI plug.  On my home
network, this worked out nicely, with the x11vnc running on the ICS, and
the bVNC viewer running on my phone/tablet.  So for the meeting, I thought
I'd use an Ad-Hoc network, since I wouldn't want to assume the Cafe Encante
network was set up to allow two clients to talk to each other. Ha, big
surprise, Android (unrooted) doesn't do Ad-Hoc!  So the fallback was to use
my netbook running Ubuntu 18.04 to run the bVNC viewer in a window.   This
worked and was demoed at a meeting. I used WEP instead of WPA encryption.

 (TODO: See if WPA is still a problem on the Ad-Hoc setup --it wasn't
 offered as a choice, but I thought I did see it offered last time I did
this.)

I started the ICS, and with a blind password, could get the X server
running for the user. Doing this avoided having to use root to run the
x11vnc.

>From the netbook, with a blind login to user alan on the ICS:
ssh -t -L 5900:localhost:5900 alan at 10.134.135.1 "x11vnc -localhost
-display :0"

Or as root, without a preliminary login on the ICS:
sudo ssh -t -L 5900:localhost:5900 alan at 10.134.135.1 "sudo x11vnc
-localhost -create -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -display :0"

Now run the tightvncviewer on the netbook, and see the ICS stick displayed
in a window.
 xtightvncviewer -encodings tight -bgr233 localhost::5900

The options do speed up the display significantly, at the cost of some
color fidelity.

I've been sidetracked with the UserLand Android app from the Google Play
Store, which runs Debian (and now Ubuntu) on an unrooted Android
phone/tablet.  It uses the same viewer, bvnc, I  used for the ICS, so that
piece was already in place.  Set up a session, with Ubuntu selected under
the "filesystem", and bvnc for the grahpical display, and click on the
session to start.  A major download takes place, but  resulting in a
barebones Linux (no desktop, just a terminal and no window manager).  twm
for a windows manager  works, and I eventually added xfce4.  UserLand is a
persistent "install" media, with about 12G free space.  Next thing to try
is a bluetooth mouse/keyboard addition -- the on-screen keyboard is
inconvenient.

Just days ago, I discovered that I could login to my Ubuntu 18.04 with
Wayland, while running the Nvidia drivers.  Originally, that didn't work,
Wayland wasn't even offered as a choice.  Much to my surprise, everything
seems to run, except my CUDA  demos.  Oddly, some things like Gmail, now
work better than under X.  Recently under X, Gmail's login started needing
at least two button clicks to work, and sometimes, the account choice was
just presented again.  No such failures under Wayland. Something to do with
the way input events are handled I guess -- that was always a Wayland
issue.

So many things to try, so little time...
Ken


On Sat, Sep 8, 2018 at 7:28 PM Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com>
wrote:

> Hi LUGers,
>
>     This afternoon I got my net connection back!  11 PM 8/20 to 9/8 4:15 PM
>
>     I had hoped to have this out earlier this week.
>
>     Well I came early so I had some time to work on my lack of internet
> stuff,
> while I had a connection available.  Downloaded the latest 32 bit version
> of 4MLinux
> which is 26.0.   I also got stacks of legitimate email and a double stack
> of Spam
> from China.  And I ordered some manga which will not be showing up soon.
>
>     Tom showed up by 11 AM.  I was able to give him the latest release
> of GPartEd which is 0.32.0-1 in 64 bit version.
>     John L. showed up next. He was involved with serious discussion with
> the members at that end of the table.
>
>     Ken S. and his wife came in then.  Ken has managed to get a Intel
> Compute
> Stick® to display on his netbook and the details were too much for me to
> apprehend so I have suggested that he might write an article for the list.
>
>     Ken was closely followed by Maestro who has been posting a lot lately.
>
>     11:30 AM Aaron C. came in.  I gave him a copy of GPartEd 0.32.0-1 in
> 32 bit version. He enjoyed the discussion in the lively meeting and a good
> sized salad for lunch. He and I discussed the kernel version numbers and
> later he asked Ken and Jim S. about the topic.
>
>     Around Noon Michael and Jim S showed up.   Jim and Michael
> participated in the discussion and we talked some more about kernel
> version numbers.  Aaron is using a distribution where the correct
> version has to be chosen, my procedure is far more simple as suits a
> simple person like myself.  He has to pick out of a confusing list of
> parts of the kernel. And the numbers are not the same as the main
> list of kernels it seems.
>     On my PCLInuxOS64 I use the Synaptic package manager, I click
> on an icon to reload data and download several files then am shown
> a nice list of updates which I generally take without demur.   Then in
>  the Search window I type 'kernel' and get to see a list of what is
> available.  I am presently using Linux 4.18.05 very happily.
>
>     Michael, Jim S, and I were involved in discussion of the possible
>  complications of writing a distribution.  Now this is done by some
> adventurous online acquaintances of mine using a base of PCLinuxOS64.
> If you do a whole new distro you will have problems setting up
> repositories
> and updates from online.  Starting with a known and successful distribution
>  the maintainers of the original distribution will have those repositories
> in
> place and will be doing updates which can be used on your distribution.
> Example: DarkStar is out.  based on PCLinuxOS64 and able to use the
> updates from the original maintainer.
>
>     The meeting broke up at a bit after 1300.   Jim Stockford gave Aaron a
> ride
> to his next destination and myself a ride home.
>
>  Anyone attending the meeting is free to correct my omissions or
> incomprehension of the activities and asked to do so asap so that the
> membership not in attendance will not be mis-informed any longer
> than necessary.
>
>     Good News.
>
>     Steam has a 1000 (or more by now) Windows games running on Linux.
> Forbes | August 27, 2018
>
> Steam For Linux Adds 1000 Perfectly Playable Windows Games In Under A Week
>
> Six days ago there were less than 5000 games available to install and play
> on
>
> Steam for Linux. Following Valve's incredible Steam Play update, which adds
>
> streamlined compatibility layers for Windows-o
>     Read the story at the URL below for more details.
>
> <https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2018/08/27/steam-for-linux-adds-1000-perfectly-playable-windows-games-in-under-a-week/#682f594255ae>
> <https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2018/08/27/steam-for-linux-adds-1000-perfectly-playable-windows-games-in-under-a-week/#682f594255ae>
>
>     Intel's Whiskey Lake Brings In-Silicon Meltdown and Foreshadow Fixes
> Read the fine article!
>
> <https://www.tomshardware.com/news/whiskey-lake-mitigations-in-silicon-intel,37723.html>
> <https://www.tomshardware.com/news/whiskey-lake-mitigations-in-silicon-intel,37723.html>
>
>
>     Bad News:
>     Security experts say that Hyper-threading should be turned off in the
> BIOS
> to avoid more of the hardware exploits made possible by Intel's bad design.
>
> <https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/openbsd-disables-intel-hyper-threading-spectre,news-58705.html>
> <https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/openbsd-disables-intel-hyper-threading-spectre,news-58705.html>
>
>
>     The next meeting at the Cafe Enchante will be on Monday, September 17
> from 6-8 PM.   Hope that you can make it.
>
>     Bobbie Sellers
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> sf-lug mailing list
> sf-lug at linuxmafia.com
> http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/sf-lug
> Information about SF-LUG is at http://www.sf-lug.org/<br>
> Related Information <br>
> http://www.shallowsky.com/blog/<br>
> http://explainshell.com/ <br>
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